In its most recent Uncarrier move, T-Mobile decided to get rid of all of its existing wireless plans and instead, offer just one unlimited plan option for new subscribers. But apparently, a lot of people reacted strongly to the major US wireless carrier’s decision, and they took to the T-Mobile Reddit thread to air their grievances. It seems that what really riled up these customers is that they now have to pay up for the new single option if they want to avail of a cheaper, limited plan.
Past Uncarrier moves have been generally praised by the public for trying to shake up the industry, especially with regards to how wireless services are delivered to mobile users. T-Mobile was able to overtake Sprint as the third biggest wireless carrier in the United States because of its bold Uncarrier events, attracting new customers while often forcing other network service providers to react to every new service or feature it introduces.
But its latest Uncarrier announcement is taking so much flak that many are now considering the move as the first major misstep by T-Mobile in a while. In its defense, the wireless carrier points out that it is merely trying to demonstrate to the industry that it is not always about counting every megabyte. According to Mike Sievert, the chief operating officer of T-Mobile, offering a single unlimited option has the potential of shaping the future of the wireless industry, and it is pretty understandable that some may be scared of the changes that brings.
T-Mobile has had experience in effecting change in the industry. When the wireless carrier first started doing away with smartphone contracts and subsidies, its rivals followed in its footsteps -- industry leader Verizon Wireless did the same a couple of years later, with AT&T joining the club in January early this year. Also two years ago, T-Mobile began campaigning the Big Red and AT&T to get rid of their overage fees, and fast forwarding to 2016, the past two months have seen the two carriers finally starting to remove overage fees for users who exceed the limit.
As for T-Mobile’s new single unlimited option, the company may have felt the timing is right, considering how much content mobile users of today are consuming via live streams, video streams, and music streams. But for mobile users, especially those who are signing up under T-Mobile for the first time (whether they are looking for unlimited or not), they will most likely be forced to avail of the unlimited plan, which costs $20 more than the existing low end plan, which starts at $50 for 2 gigabytes of data. Another source of complaints is that upon signing up for the unlimited plan, users will be forced to watch video streams in reduced quality, and will have no access to data tethering, because if they want a better video stream and data tethering, they will have to pay more.
